Murder in Canton: A Judge Dee Mystery Read online

  ‘I found the dancer, sir. And she has indeed Tanka blood, from her mother. Unfortunately her patron is a jealous fellow, so she didn't dare to have a longer talk with me on the boat where he has established her. She said, however, that sometimes he also meets her in a small house of his south of the Kwang-siao Temple, and she'll let me know when I can have a second meeting with her there. She only visits it occasionally, for being a pariah, she's not allowed to dwell ashore.’

  ‘I know,’ Judge Dee said peevishly. ‘The pariah class must be abolished, it's a disgrace to a great nation like ours. It's our duty to educate those backward unfortunates, then grant them full citizenship. Did you also visit Captain Nee?’

  ‘I did, sir. Found him a pleasant, well-informed fellow. He had quite a bit to say about Mansur—as I had expected.’

  After he had been told the captain's story, Judge Dee remarked:

  ‘You'd better be careful with that captain, Chiao Tai. I can't believe that tale. It doesn't tally with what I heard from Liang Foo. Mansur is a wealthy princeling; why should he stoop to blackmail? And where did Nee get that story, anyway? Let me see, he told you that he had decided to stay on shore for a few years, because he likes a quiet life, and wants to devote himself to the study of mysticism. That doesn't ring true at all! He is a sailor, and a sailor needs stronger reasons than that to keep away from the sea! I think Nee himself was in love with that woman, and her family married her off during one of his voyages. Nee is staying on here, hoping that sooner or later her elderly husband will die, thus enabling him to marry his old love. Of course Nee hates Mansur because of the Arab's affair with his lady-love, and therefore he concocted that blackmail story. How does that strike you?’

  ‘Yes,’ Chiao Tai said slowly, ‘that could be quite true. It would fit nicely with what his two slave-girls told me, namely that the captain is deeply devoted to some woman.’

  ‘Two slave-girls?’ the judge asked. ‘So that is why the Prefect said yesterday that Nee is leading a dissolute life.’

  ‘No, sir. Those two girls—they are twins, by the way—said definitely that the captain never as much as makes a pass at them.’

  ‘What is he keeping them for, then? As interior decoration?’ Tao Gan asked.

  ‘Out of piety to their mother, who was a distant relative of his. Rather a pathetic story.’ He related in detail what Captain Nee had said, and added, ‘The Chinese scoundrel who seduced that young lady must have been a mean bastard. I hate those fellows who think they can do what they like with a foreign girl, just because she isn't Chinese.’

  The judge gave him a keen look. He remained silent for a long while, pensively playing with his sidewhiskers. At last he spoke:

  ‘Well, we have more important things to worry about than a sea captain's private life. You two may go now and have your noon rice. But be back here before two o'clock, for the conference.’

  When the two friends had greeted the judge and were about to leave the hall, Chiao Tai picked up the small package from the table. Handing it to Tao Gan, he said in an undertone:

  This was slipped into my sleeve by a girl in the street. She bumped into me expressly, when I was leaving Nee's house. Since it's marked personal, I didn't like to show it to our judge before you'd seen it.’

  Tao Gan quickly opened it. Inside was an egg-shaped object, wrapped up in what seemed like an old blank envelope. It was a cricket-cage of beautiful carved ivory.

  Tao Gan put it to his ear and listened a moment to the soft chirruping. ‘It's from her all right,’ he muttered. Then he suddenly exclaimed, ‘Look here! What does this mean?’

  He pointed at the square seal on the flap of the envelope. It read: ‘Private seal of Lew, Imperial Censor.’

  ‘We must show this to the judge at once!’ he said excitedly.

  They went back to the rear of the hall. When Judge Dee looked up astonished from the map he was studying, Tao Gan silently handed him the cage and the envelope. Chiao Tai told him quickly how he had got it. The judge put the cage aside, examined the seal, then slit the envelope open and took out a single sheet of thin notepaper. It was covered with small cursive writing. Smoothing the paper out on his desk, he scrutinized it carefully. At last he looked up and said gravely:

  ‘These are a few notes the Censor jotted down for his own use. Concerning three Arabs who paid him sums of money, for goods received. He doesn't say clearly what goods. Besides Mansur, he mentions the names of two others, transcribed as Ah-me-te and Ah-si-se.’

  ‘Holy heaven!’ Chiao Tai exclaimed. ‘Then the Censor was a traitor! Or is it a fake, perhaps?’

  ‘It is perfectly genuine,’ the judge said slowly. ‘The seal is all right; I have seen it hundreds of times in the Chancery. As to the writing, I am familiar with the Censor's regular hand from the confidential reports to the Council he wrote out himself, but not with the shorthand that is used for such notes. But this memo is written in the highly cursive style that only great scholars achieve.’

  He leaned back in his chair, and remained deep in thought for a considerable time. His two lieutenants watched him anxiously. Suddenly he looked up.

  ‘I'll tell you what this means!’ he said briskly. ‘Someone is perfectly aware of our real purpose in visiting Canton! And since that is a closely guarded secret of state, the unknown person must be a ranking official in the capital who is in on all the secret deliberations of the Grand Council. He must belong to a political faction opposing the Censor. He and his accomplices lured the Censor to Canton, in order to involve him in Mansur's plot, accuse him of high treason and thus have him removed from the political scene. But the Censor saw through the clumsy scheme, of course. He feigned to be willing to collaborate with the Arabs, as proved by this note. He did that only in order to find out who exactly was behind the plot. However, the other party obviously discovered that the Censor had seen through the scheme. And had him poisoned.’ Looking levelly at Tao Gan, he went on, “The fact that the blind girl sent you the envelope proves that she means well, but at the same time that she was present when the Censor died. For blind persons can't pick up letters lying about on a table or in the street. She must have found it when she went through the dead man's sleeves with her sensitive fingers, and abstracted the envelope without the murderer noticing it. She took the Golden Bell also from the Censor's dead body. The story she told you about how she heard the cricket's sound while passing by the temple was so much eyewash.’

  ‘Later she must have asked someone she trusted to have a look at the envelope,’ Tao Gan remarked. ‘When she was told that it bore the Censor's seal, she kept it. Then when she heard from the person or persons who visited her after I had left her room that I was investigating the Censor's disappearance, she sent the envelope to me—adding the cricket, to indicate that it came from her.’

  The judge had hardly listened. He burst out angrily:

  ‘Our opponents know exactly every move we make! It is an impossible situation! And that sea captain must be hand in glove with them, Chiao Tai! It can't be just a coincidence that the unknown girl put the package in your sleeve in front of his house. Go back to Captain Nee at once, and question him closely! Begin discreetly, but if he denies knowing the blind girl, you collar him and bring him here! You'll find me in my private dining-room.’

  XIV

  Chiao Tai took the precaution of descending from the litter in the street next to the one where Captain Nee lived, and then went on afoot. Before knocking, he looked the street up and down. There were only a couple of street vendors about; most people were either eating their noon rice or preparing for their siesta.

  The old crone opened the gate. She immediately started upon a long story in what Chiao Tai presumed to be Persian. He listened for a while to show his goodwill, then pushed her away and went inside.

  On the second floor a deep silence reigned. He opened the door of the reception room. No one was there. He thought the captain and his two charming slave-girls would have finished their noon me
al by now and would be taking their siesta. Severally—as Dunyazad would doubtless have pointed out! he said to himself peevishly. He would wait for a little while; perhaps the old crone would have enough sense to rouse the captain. If no one appeared, he would have to explore the rest of the house on his own.

  He stepped up to the sword rack and again admired the blades displayed there. Absorbed in his study, he did not hear the two turbaned men who climbed on to the flat roof outside. They came noiselessly into the room, carefully stepping over the potted orchids on the window sill. While the lean one drew a long thin knife, the squat man took a firm hold of his club, stepped up behind Chiao Tai and quickly brought the club down hard on the back of his head. Chiao Tai stood stock-still for one brief moment, then he fell to the floor with a heavy thud.

  ‘There are plenty of good blades to choose from, Aziz,’ the lean Arab remarked as he turned to the sword rack. ‘We'll finish Mansur's job quickly.’

  ‘Allah be praised!’ a silvery voice spoke in Arabic. ‘I am rid of the lecherous unbeliever!’

  The two ruffians whirled round and gaped at the girl who had come out from behind the curtain. She was stark naked, wearing only a blue necklace and white satin shoes.

  ‘A houri descended straight from paradise!’ the squat man said reverently. He stared with unbelieving delight at her perfect young figure.

  ‘Call me a reward for all true believers,’ Dananir said. Pointing at Chiao Tai, she added, ‘The man wanted to assault me. He was just taking a sword to force me to submit to his odious embraces, so I fled behind the curtain. His mother was loved by an ass.’

  ‘Just allow us a few moments to finish him off,’ the lean fellow said with enthusiasm. ‘Then we'll profit by your company! My name is Ahmed, by the way. My friend here is called Aziz.’

  ‘Ahmed or Aziz, that's my problem,’ Dananir said, looking them up and down with a provocative smile. ‘Both of you are handsome young warriors. Let me see now!’ She quickly came up to them, took each by the sleeve and made them stand side by side, with their backs against the curtain.

  ‘By Allah!’ the squat man exclaimed impatiently. ‘Why worry your pretty head? First take…’

  Suddenly his voice broke. He clasped his hands to his chest and sank to the floor, blood oozing from his distorted mouth.

  Dananir put her arms round the other with a frightened cry.

  ‘Allah preserve us!’ she wailed. ‘What is…’

  A large alabaster vase crashed down on the man's head. Dananir let go of him, and he fell down on the reed mat.

  Dunyazad came out from behind the curtain. She looked dazedly at the two prone Arabs.

  ‘You did that very well,’ Dananir remarked. ‘But why didn't you stab the other too? The captain was rather fond of that vase, you know.’

  ‘I noticed a bulge about his shoulders, and was afraid he was wearing a vest of mail.’ Dunyazad tried to speak casually, but her voice trembled. She was very pale, a film of moisture covered her brow. Suddenly she ran over to the far corner and threw up on the floor. As she turned round and brushed the wet hair from her face, she muttered:

  ‘Must be that fish I ate at noon. Come on, put your trousers on and help me revive him.’

  She knelt by Chiao Tai's side and began to rub his neck and shoulders. Dananir fetched a jug and poured water over his head.

  At long last Chiao Tai regained consciousness. He looked up dazed at the two faces above him. ‘The awful twins!’ he gasped and quickly closed his eyes again.

  He lay still for a while. Then he raised himself slowly to a sitting position and felt the large lump on the back of his head. He did up his hair again, and carefully replaced his cap, well to the front. Giving the twins a baleful look, he growled:

  ‘By heaven, I'll beat your little bottoms raw for that disgraceful prank !’

  ‘Would you kindly have a look at the two men who attacked you, sir? The thin one is called Ahmed, the fat one Aziz,’ Dunyazad said primly.

  Chiao Tai sat up. He stared at the two Arabs sprawling in front of the curtain, and at the knife and club lying on the mat.

  ‘While my sister diverted their attention, I stabbed the squat one,’ Dunyazad explained. ‘The other I merely stunned, so that you can question him, if so desired. He said Mansur had sent them.’

  Chiao Tai came slowly to his feet. He felt sick and dizzy, but he managed to say with a grin, ‘Good girls!’

  ‘You ought to vomit now, really,’ Dananir said, with a solicitous look at his chalk-white face. ‘It's the normal reaction after a heavy blow on the head.’

  ‘Do I look like a weakling?’ Chiao Tai asked, indignant.

  ‘It'll help if you imagine you are trying to swallow a large piece of lamb's fat, slightly rancid,’ Dananir suggested. As he began to retch, she added quickly, ‘Not on the mat! Over there in the corner, please!’

  He stumbled to the place indicated and vomited. He had to admit that it relieved him considerably. He took a long draught from the water jug, spat through the window arch, then went over to the two prone men. He pulled Dunyazad's thin blade from the squat Arab's back. Wiping it off on the dead man's gown, he said with grudging admiration, ‘You have a deft hand!’ After he had examined the other's skull, he looked up. ‘Too deft, as a matter of fact. This man is dead too.’ As Dunyazad uttered a suppressed cry of horror, he said to her, ‘The black stuff you smear on your eyes is running. You look awful.’

  Dunyazad turned round and rushed behind the curtain.

  ‘Don't mind her,’ Dananir observed. ‘She is hyper-sensitive.’

  Chiao Tai went carefully through the clothes of the two dead men. But they had not carried one scrap of paper on them. He remained standing there, pensively fingering his moustache. When Dunyazad came back, her face newly made-up, he said:

  ‘Wonder what those two were up to! Why didn't they stab me to death at once? That long knife looks very serviceable.’

  ‘Didn't I tell you?’ Dunyazad remarked to her sister. ‘He is nice but dumb.’

  ‘Hey! Why do you call me dumb, you impudent hussy?’ Chiao Tai shouted.

  ‘Because you are incapable of simple reasoning,’ she replied composedly. ‘Don't you see that it was their intention to kill you with one of the captain's swords? So as to make it appear that it was he who murdered you? If you can't follow me, I'll gladly explain it once more.’

  ‘For heaven's sake!’ Chiao Tai exclaimed. ‘You must be right! Where is the captain?’

  ‘He went out directly after his noon rice. We heard our old woman trying to explain that to you, but you didn't understand her and came up regardless. Fresh, we thought that.’

  ‘Why in the name of heaven didn't you two show up when I came in?’

  ‘All handbooks of love are agreed,’ Dunyazad said earnestly, ‘that the best method for judging a man's character is to observe him when he thinks he is alone. Since we are generally interested in you, we observed you. From behind that curtain.’

  ‘Well I never! But thanks all the same!’

  ‘Don't you think, mister colonel,’ Dunyazad resumed in a businesslike voice, ‘that this occurrence constitutes a compelling reason for buying and marrying the two of us?’

  ‘Heavens no!’ Chiao Tai cried out, horrified.

  ‘Heavens yes!’ she said firmly. Putting her hands on her hips, she asked: ‘What do you think we saved your life for, eh?’

  Dananir had been gazing steadily at Chiao Tai. Now she said slowly:

  ‘Let's not be precipitate, sister. We are agreed that it must happen to us practically simultaneously, aren't we? Are you quite sure the man is sufficiently intense for accomplishing that?’

  Dunyazad eyed him speculatively. ‘I wonder. I see grey hairs in his moustache. He's forty if he's a day!’

  ‘It'd be awful if one of us should be disappointed,’ her sister continued. ‘We always intended it to be a shared memory of ecstatic surrender, didn't we?’

  ‘You lewd hussies!’ Chiao Tai bu
rst out angrily. ‘Is that blind girl friend of yours of the same ilk?’

  Dunyazad gave him a blank look. Then she told her sister disgustedly :

  ‘He wants a blind girl! Well, that's probably the only kind he stands a fair chance of getting!’

  Chiao Tai decided that he was no match for them. He said wearily to Dunyazad:

  ‘Tell the old crone to call two litters, so that I can take the dead bodies to the office of my boss. Pending their arrival, I'll help you clear away the mess here. On one condition, namely that you two keep your rosy little mouths shut!’